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Bookkeeping and accounting is an inevitable part of running an e-commerce business but when should you start to find professional help? The right accounting professional can significantly improve your profitability and longevity. However, you have to weigh up time and money, as well as when external expertise will become most valuable to you.

Product catalog management is at the core of multiple parts of your e-commerce business. Not only will it help to streamline user experience on your site, it will also make your operations and finances run smoother. The earlier you start focusing on your product catalog management, the easier it will be to scale your store and the better your business insights will be.

It's pretty much expected that Shopify stores offer multiple payment methods (otherwise known as payment processors or payment gateways), everything from Shopify Payments, AfterPay, PayPal and more. With a bit of groundwork, you can automate the majority of your Shopify accounting and bookkeeping, even with multiple payment methods.

E-commerce businesses will typically see the cost of goods sold or COGS in their income statement, but what exactly is it? For product-based businesses, it's essential to understand, track and manage your COGS. As your catalogue grows and becomes more complex, so does staying on top of COGS.

One of the key reasons why e-commerce businesses fail to grow is the lack of understanding surrounding break-even points and break-even analyses. Doing a break-even analysis is a key part of your accounting and finances. Once you know your break-even point, you can better map out the strategies that can help you surpass it and make a profit.

Multichannel has been a buzzword in the retail space for the past few years but taking this approach has unique implications for your accounting processes. At a high level, multichannel stores are those that use multiple channels to sell the same or similar products. Omnichannel stores do the same, however, put unified communication at the forefront of their strategy.

E-commerce automation is the key to making your business work for you rather than the other way around. With competition only getting larger by the day, finding ways to stay ahead is a necessity. Automation involves using software that does manual tasks for you in the background. It allows you to save time and spend it on what actually matters.

A major part of making sure your financial statements come back positive after the quarter ends is making sure your pricing strategy is right for your e-commerce business. Of course, there's no one size fits all for every product or store. Hence, it's important that you take the time to understand your unique business.

One part of accounting that e-commerce business owners tend to leave behind is expense tracking and management. Staying on top of your expenses is integral to your profitability, cash flow management and more. Being consistent with this part of your bookkeeping will help save a bunch of time when tax season comes or when you need to analyse financial data.

The income statement, also known as the profit and loss statement or P&L statement, is a key financial statement for e-commerce businesses and their bottom line. In this article, we'll go through what's on the income statement as well as what numbers are specifically relevant to e-commerce.